Fear of Missing Out -...

Running Head: FEAR OF MISSING OUT 1

Fear of Missing Out: Prevalence, dynamics, and consequences of experiencing FOMO

Marina Milyavskaya

Department of Psychology, Carleton University

Mark Saffran

Nora Hope

Richard Koestner

Department of Psychology, McGill University

This manuscript has been accepted for publication in Motivation and Emotion. Please note that

some changes may occur during the copy-editing process, such that the final published version

may differ somewhat from this version.

Author Note

This research was supported by a grant to Richard Koestner from the Social Sciences and

Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec -

Société et culture (FQRSC-Quebec). Marina Milyavskaya was supported by a fellowship from

the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Please send correspondence to Marina Milyavskaya, Department of Psychology, Carleton

University, Loeb 550B, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. E-mail:

[email protected]

FEAR OF MISSING OUT 2

Abstract

Fear of Missing Out, known colloquially as FOMO, appears to be a common experience, and has

recently become part of the vernacular, receiving frequent mentions in the popular media. The

present paper provides a multi-method empirical examination of FOMO. In a first study,

experience sampling was used to assess FOMO experiences among college freshmen. Nightly

diaries and end-of-semester measures provided data on the short and long-term consequences of

experiencing FOMO. Results showed that students experience FOMO frequently, particularly

later in the day and later in the week, and while doing a required task like studying or working.

More frequent experiences of FOMO were associated with negative outcomes both daily and

over the course of the semester, including increasing negative affect, fatigue, stress, physical

symptoms, and decreased sleep. A second experimental study investigated FOMO on a

conceptual level, distinguishing FOMO from general self-regulation and exploring its links with

social media.

Keywords: fear of missing out; experience sampling method; well-being;self-regulation


Fear of Missing Out: Prevalence, dynamics, and consequences of experiencing FOMO

Imagine you are a college freshman living, for the first time in your life, with only your

peers. Your co-ed dormitory, located in the heart of one of North America’s most dynamic cities,

is buzzing on this particular Friday evening as everyone is getting ready to go out. Yet while the

dorm is pulsing with anticipation of a memorable night downtown, you have decided to work on

a term paper due on Monday. Consider how your studying experience will be altered by the

knowledge that your friends will be out having a great time while you remain with only your

unfinished paper as company. It seems likely that, even with excellent willpower and study

habits, your studying will be affected by what you know you could be doing, and you will be

distracted by nagging thoughts and anxiety about missing out on a potentially exciting

experience. Commonly referred to as “Fear of Missing Out”, or “FOMO”, this is a salient

experience for many young people. Indeed, if one were to google “FOMO” one would be met

with over 3,000,000 hits, including a New York Times article, a Forbes opinion piece, a handful

of marketing magazines trying to pin down this up-and-coming trend, and countless bloggers

lamenting their own FOMO experiences. Condensed to FOMO, proliferated and placed firmly

into the vernacular of the 21st century, Fear of Missing Out has received relatively less attention

in psychological research. The present paper thus provides a quantitative exploration into the

widespread social phenomena known as FOMO, using experience sampling methodology to

examine how often and when it is experienced in day-to-day life, as well as exploring its effects

on psychological adaptation.


With the proliferation of choices in today’s society, it may seem as if the notion of

securing maximum opportunity, rooted in economic rational choice theory (von Neumann &

Morgenstern, 1944), has become firmly entrenched in the Western world. However, recent

research has demonstrated that having too many choices can lead to choice paralysis, where both

decision making and well-being are undermined (e.g. Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). One factor that is

thought to underlie the negative effects of choice overload is the potential regret resulting from

making a sub-optimal choice (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). Similarly, FOMO can be thought to

arise from an abundance of choices among activities or experiences, particularly those of a social

nature, coupled with an uncertainty over the ‘best’ choice and anticipatory regret over the

options not selected. Unlike post-decisional regret, which occurs upon realising that another

choice would have been better after a choice has been made (Zeelenberg,1999), FOMO can be

experienced despite believing that one made the ‘best available choice’ in the moment. For

example, a student deciding to go on a date rather than to a fraternity party might still wonder

what he missed by not going to the party even though he enjoyed his date and would repeat that

choice in the future.

It has been suggested that decisional regret is particularly prominent for young people in

Western society because there are few explicit guidelines about how to make meaningful life

choices (Schwartz, 2000). The first year of university, when many young people find themselves

on their own without authority figures to guide their choices, may be a time when one’s

decisions become particularly important. Each decision a freshman makes thus carries increased

adaptive importance and may likewise be accompanied by more uncertainty as to whether it is

the ‘best’ decision, along with increased decisional regret. Similarly, the freshman year may

present greater social opportunities, along with more responsibilities that would require passing


up on those opportunities. As a result, experiences of FOMO may be particularly heightened

during freshman year.

The scientific community has begun to examine the correlates and consequences of

FOMO, especially as it relates to the use of computers and social media. In one of the first

psychology papers to examine the topic, Fear of Missing Out was defined as the “pervasive

apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent”

(Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013, p.1841). This definition highlights the

social aspects of FOMO that further distinguish it from post-decision regret: it is specifically

about missing out on experiences that others are having. Przybylski’s first study surveyed a large

international sample of adults about their FOMO experiences, resulting in a 10-item Fear of

Missing Out scale that assessed the construct as a fairly general and stable individual difference

variable. This FOMO scale was shown to be associated with lower psychological need

satisfaction, general mood and life satisfaction, and higher social media usage. Following studies

also found FOMO to be related to greater depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms (Baker,

Krieger, & LeRoy, 2016; Elhai, Levine, Dvorak, & Hall, 2016), and to more problematic social

media and mobile phone use (Beyens, Frison, & Egermont, 2016; Oberst et al., 2017).

A key limitation of the research on FOMO is its use of cross-sectional surveys (e.g., Elhai

et al., 2016; Oberst et al., 2017; Przybylski et al., 2013), which does not allow for any

conclusions about causality or about the long-term effects of experiencing FOMO. Based on

their findings and on FOMO’s likely ties to regret, which has been shown to result in a variety of

negative psychological outcomes (Zeelenberg, 1999; Lecci, Okun & Karoly, 1994), we expected

that experiencing FOMO in a given situation will be related to proximal negative emotional and

self-regulatory consequences, and frequent FOMO experiences to be related to increased


negative affect and stress over time. Additionally, since experiencing FOMO typically involves

choosing one option or activity at the expense of others, we also anticipated that frequent FOMO

experiences will be related to greater fatigue (Hockey, 2013), a state that has been shown to be

exacerbated by decision making (Vohs et al., 2008). Finally, given that regret has been shown to

guide decision-making and behaviour, we expected that FOMO could similarly affect students’

behaviour; in particular, we expected that students’ sleep would likely be affected by FOMO, as

students who experience FOMO may be particularly likely to miss out on sleep, either because of

greater rumination and stress or in order to maximize their activities and opportunities by staying

up later.

The popular media has suggested that FOMO is likely amplified by the proliferation of

social media, making it easier than ever to be aware of experiences on which one is missing out

(Worthman, 2011). The studies by Przybylski and colleagues (2013) support this view, finding

FOMO to be moderately related to social media use. We would suggest, however, that there is a

larger scope to the phenomenon of FOMO, and that FOMO can likely be experienced without

involvement of social media. Indeed, it seems likely that college students in the pre-Internet era

experienced a fear of missing out when they heard sounds of a party down the hall or across the

quad. The focus of recent FOMO papers on social media (e.g., Alt, 2013; Oberst et al., 2017,

Przybylski et al., 2013) is natural given the way technological advances in this area have

impacted social interaction and self-regulatory patterns. However, we suspect that FOMO occurs

among young people frequently and across a range of situations and contexts, including those

devoid of social media influences. Our second study was designed to specifically look at the role

of social media in the FOMO experience.


Overall, the goal of the present investigation is to provide an in-depth exploration of the

FOMO phenomenon. First, we wanted to assess FOMO experiences in a more

phenomenologically proximal manner, rather than asking about generalized retrospections. To

examine a socially induced but private phenonomon like FOMO, a good place to start is to track

individuals’ activities, interactions, and experiences across contexts and over several days. Such

an experience sampling method (ESM; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1992) could allow

researchers to address some basic questions such as how frequently young people experience

FOMO, the contexts in which FOMO occurs, and the consequence of frequent FOMO

experiences. Experience sampling has been demonstrated to be successful in capturing transient

moments of intense motivations, such as desires and resistance in normal everyday life

(Hofmann Baumeister, Förster, & Vohs, 2012). The primary goal of our investigation was thus to

employ the experience sampling methodology in order to explore basic questions about FOMO

experiences among college students (Study 1). Additionally, we conducted a second

experimental study to examine two important conceptual issues regarding the nature of FOMO

experiences. Specifically, we sought to determine whether FOMO experiences were uniquely

linked to social media usage, and whether FOMO could be distinguished from more general self-

regulation conflicts in which one must delay gratification and persist at a boring task.

Study 1

In the first study, we used the experience sampling method (ESM; Csikszentmihalyi &

Larson, 1992) to capture university freshmen’s in-the-moment experiences of FOMO. We were

particularly interested in investigating whether FOMO was especially likely while engaging in

certain activities, and examining the fluctuations of FOMO throughout a typical week. This ESM

methodology provides a measure, unbiased by recall of past experiences, of how frequently each


participant experienced FOMO, both over the course of each day and over an entire week. The

frequency of FOMO experiences can then be related both to day-level outcomes (measured using

a nightly diary) and to adaptation over the course of a semester. Experience sampling is

particularly well-suited to examine FOMO, which concerns present experiences on which the

person is currently missing out, as distinguished from decisional regret, which is retrospective

and focused on past decisions. Based on Przybylski and colleagues’ (2013) definition of FOMO

(see above), we focused on the frequency of experiences of missing out that participants reported

in their day-to-day lives – that is, we operationalized the frequent endorsement of missing out as

representing the “pervasive apprehension” of missing out.

This study was designed to provide an initial understanding of the FOMO phenomenon,

with three sets of research questions. First, we were interested in determining how frequently

FOMO is experienced, and when. We expected FOMO to be more frequently experienced on

weekends than during weekdays, and later rather than earlier in the day, when a greater number

of social activities typically take place. Second, we wanted to know whether the frequency of

FOMO experiences was related to any of the Big Five personality traits, and ensure than FOMO

was not simply a manifestation of, for example, high neuroticism or high extroversion. Finally,

and perhaps most importantly, we were interested in the consequences of experiencing FOMO,

both on a day-to-day level and over the course of a semester. As described earlier, we

hypothesized FOMO to be related to numerous negative outcomes including negative affect,

stress, fatigue, and decreased sleep.

Methods

Participants and procedure. One hundred and fifty nine first-year university students

(72% female, M age = 18; SD = 1.04) who had smartphones were recruited for a study of goal


pursuit and well-being that included an ESM component.1 Participants came into the lab at the

start of the fall semester to complete baseline measures (including personality and well-being

measures) and were introduced to the ESM protocol. Three weeks later, participants completed

the week-long ESM and nightly diary component of the study: For seven days, five times during

the day at random intervals distributed over the course of 12 hours (from 10am to 10pm),

participants received a text message with a link to a brief online survey regarding their present

experience, which they were asked to complete immediately. They also received a nightly

message with a different survey (at 10:15pm). One hundred and fifty one students completed at

least some of the daily signals, for a total of 3615 ESM surveys (68% response rate) and 955

nightly surveys (90% of all nightly signals sent). At the end of the semester (in late

December/early January), participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire that

included well-being measures; one hundred and seven students (68%) completed this

questionnaire.2

Experience sampling measures. At each signal, participants were asked the following

question to determine FOMO: “Is there something your friends or peers are doing right now, that

you feel you are missing out on?” (yes/no response option). They were also asked to report the

current activity in which they were engaged.3

Nightly measures. At the fixed evening signal, participants rated their affect during the

day using a nine-item scale of affect (Emmons, 1992) that included four positive (e.g., joyful)

and five negative (e.g., frustrated) items. Additionally, single items assessed fatigue (“Please rate

the degree to which you felt this way during the course of the day today: mentally exhausted”)

and vitality (“Please rate the degree to which you felt this way during the course of the day

today: alive and vital”). All items were rated using a slider with a scale from 0 (not at all) to


6(very much). Finally, participants checked off which, if any, of nine physical symptoms they

experienced that day (e.g. headaches, sore throat; Emmons, 1992).

Person-level measures. At the start of the semester, participants completed a battery of

questionnaires including the Big Five inventory (44 items; John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008; αs for

each of the Big 5 facets ranging from .72 to .87.). Affect, stress, and sleep quantity were assessed

both at the start and at the end of the semester. Positive and negative affect was measured using

the same items as on the nightly surveys (Emmons, 1992). Stress experienced over the past two

weeks was assessed on a scale of 1(no stress at all) to 7 (very much stress) for ‘academic/school

stress’, ‘interpersonal stress’, and ‘general stress’ (e.g. in your job, activities, other

responsibilities, etc.). These three items were combined to create an overall stress variable. Sleep

was assessed by asking participants “On average, how many hours did you sleep each night

during the past 2 weeks?”

Data Analysis and Results

Missing data

As noted in the participants section, participants only responded to 68% of the ESM

signals, and 90% of the nightly signals; the rest can be considered as missing data. For the

within-subject analyses (i.e., of in-the-moment FOMO, or nightly affect), all available

observations were used (unlike within-subject ANOVA, HLM analyses do not require the same

number of observations from each subject). However, when computing proportion scores, we

needed to have a minimum number of reports to establish a baseline, so we removed anyone who

completed fewer than 7 ESM surveys (20% of all surveys sent) using listwise deletion (19

participants were removed). For the analyses examining changes in well-being across the

semester, we used only those participants who completed the final time point (listwise deletion).


The 39 participants who did not complete this time point were not different from those who did

complete this time point (n=101) on measures of FOMO or well-being (positive and negative

affect, stress, sleep) at time 1, suggesting that the data were missing completely at random

(MCAR), supporting our use of listwise deletion (i.e., parameter estimates are not biased by

listwise deletion when data are MCAR; Peugh & Enders, 2004).

Frequency and contextual correlates of FOMO experiences.

Using the ESM data, we first examined when people were most likely to experience

FOMO using two-level multilevel modeling (signals nested within person). Since FOMO

experience at each signal is a binary variable, these analyses were conducted using a logistic

multilevel regression (using HLM software; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Analyses with a

categorical IV are displayed using odds ratios (OR) derived from the estimated log odds of the

outcome. Overall, the freshmen students experienced FOMO on approximately 16% of the

signals (SD = 16%; range: 0 to 97%).4 Table 1 presents the proportion of times participants

experienced FOMO by activity in which they were engaged when they completed the survey.5

These activities were effects-coded to allow for a statistical comparison of each activity (except

for the “other” category) with the grand mean (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003). Fixed

effects from the population-average model with robust standard errors are reported (Raudenbush,

2004). Compared to the likelihood of experiencing FOMO at any given point, FOMO was more

commonly experienced during studying (OR = 1.40, 95%CI[1.13; 1.73], p = .002) and work (OR

= 2.18, 95%CI [1.00; 4.75], p = .051), and less commonly experienced during eating (OR = 0.61

[.43; .86], p < .05). Interestingly, FOMO was not less frequent than average during socializing

(OR = 0.91, 95%CI[.68; 1.22], p = .527). In order to examine the prevalence of FOMO

throughout the week, the time of each response was coded into two-hour segments. Figure 1


displays the proportion of FOMO experienced throughout the day on each day of the week. As

expected FOMO was more commonly experienced later in the day (OR = 1.15, 95% CI[1.09;

1.21], p < .001), and on Thursday (OR = 1.56, 95CI[1.09; 2.21], p = .034), Friday (OR = 1.56,

95%CI[1.09; 2.23], p = .03), and (marginally) Saturday (OR = 1.45; 95%CI[1.01; 2.09], p

= .054) compared to Monday.

FOMO and personality.

To examine the relationship of personality variables with frequency of FOMO

experiences, a person-level variable was computed representing the proportion of the signals on

which FOMO was reported. As this variable was strongly positively skewed, we transformed it

using a square root transformation so that it more closely approximated a normal distribution.

This variable was then correlated with the personality measures included in this study. These

analyses were conducted using SPSS 22. Only participants who responded to a minimum of 7

signals during the week were used for these analyses (N = 140). All five of the Big Five traits

were unrelated to FOMO (rs from .02 to .14; all ps>.09; full results can be found on

osf.io/8dhv6).6 These results were essentially the same when all of the trait variables were

entered simultaneously as predictors in a regression.

FOMO and well-being.

Next, we tested our prediction that FOMO would play a role in physical and

psychological well-being, both on a day-to-day level and over the course of the semester. To

examine the influence of FOMO on daily well-being, the proportion of signals in which a person

indicated having experienced FOMO that day was used to predict nightly ratings of positive and

negative affect, fatigue, vitality, and physical symptoms. Multilevel modeling with day nested

within person was used for these analyses (using the mixed command in SPSS 22). FOMO was


group mean-centered, so that results reflected the effect of having higher or lower FOMO than

average on a given day. All analyses also controlled for day of the week. Unstandardized

coefficients are reported. Results showed that experiencing FOMO more frequently during the

day predicted greater negative affect (b = .56, p = .01, 95% CI [.13, .99]) and more fatigue (b

= .81, p = .01, 95% CI [.17, 1.44]), but not lower positive affect (b = -.36, p = .13, 95% CI

[-.83, .11]) or vitality (b = -.10, p = .73 95% CI [-.65, .45]). Additionally, more frequent

experiences of FOMO predicted the number of physical symptoms experienced during that day

(b = .56, p = .04, 95% CI [.03, 1.09]). In order to evaluate the possibility that a third variable,

such as greater time spent studying or working, could be responsible for the array of negative

effects observed, we repeated the analyses and controlled for the proportion of signals at which

participants reported their activity as studying, in class, or working. All of the results for FOMO

held in these supplementary analyses, controlling for proportion of signals engaged in these work

and school-related activities

Finally, using only the person-level data again, we conducted a series of multiple

regressions to examine the effect of FOMO experiences early in the semester on changes in well-

being over the semester. Participants who completed at least seven daily signals as well as the

final questionnaire were used for these analyses (N = 101). In each regression, the baseline for

that measure was included, so that the results represented the influence of FOMO on changes

over the semester. As in the personality analyses, a squared root term of FOMO (to improve

skewness) was used; consequently, only standardized estimates are reported. The frequency of

FOMO experiences during the week-long experience sampling period predicted greater negative

affect at the end of the semester (controlling for baseline negative affect), β = .23, t = 2.51, p

=.01, explaining 5% of the variance. There was no effect for positive affect, β = -.08, t = -.81, p


= .42, ΔR2 = .01. FOMO experiences also predicted increased stress over the semester

(controlling for baseline), β = .26, t = 2.92, p =.004, ΔR2 = .07. Importantly, students who

experienced more FOMO during the week-long experience sampling period reported a decrease

in sleeping over the course of the semester, β = -.23, t = -2.59, p =.01, ΔR2 = .05. These results

again held when controlling for the proportion of signals spent studying, in class, or working.

Brief Discussion

In this study, experience sampling was used to assess everyday in-the-moment

experiences of FOMO in first year university students. Results show that FOMO was prevalent

for these students throughout the day, particularly later in the day and later in the week. FOMO

was more likely to be experienced by individuals while doing obligatory activities such as

studying or working, but was not less likely when people were already engaged in a social

activity. Our results also demonstrate the deleterious effects of FOMO. More frequent FOMO

experiences were associated with increased negative affect, increased fatigue, greater stress,

more sleep problems and physical symptoms, while unrelated to positive affect and vitality.

In addition to the role of concurrent activity, contextual influences on FOMO also

included the effects of day of the week and time of day (seen in Figure 1). As predicted, FOMO

was higher later in the day and on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays – all peak social times.

With increased social opportunities come more opportunities to feel as if you are missing out on

something else. This time-sensitive increase in FOMO was found in the current study even

though, in order to avoid disturbing participants, we ended the ESM signalling period at 10 PM.

FOMO increased in frequency later in the day (as more social opportunities arise) and it seems

likely that university students would have many additional social opportunities after 10 PM.

Thus, it could be expected that FOMO would further increase later into the evening. These


findings are also congruent with the non-empirical discourse on FOMO and when it is

experienced, lending further scientific validity to the popular phenomena.

Our finding that FOMO is unrelated to personality traits is important given recent interest

in FOMO as a person-level construct (Przybylski, 2013). Although we did not assess FOMO at

the person-level as was done by Przybylski and colleagues, we found that the frequency of daily

FOMO experiences was unrelated to the Big Five personality traits, suggesting that FOMO is not

simply a matter of, for example, high neuroticism. This addresses one of the limitations pointed

out by Przybylski and colleagues in their paper, who stated the need to distinguish FOMO from

the Big Five as a future research direction.

While this study provided an in-depth look at the frequency and consequences of FOMO,

it did not delve into its conceptual implications and correlates. Given that very little research has

been published on the FOMO experience, we were interested in better understanding FOMO as a

psychological phenomenon. To do so, we wanted to distinguish it from related constructs.

Specifically, the way in which FOMO was operationalized in our first study made it possible that

what we termed ‘FOMO experiences’ were simply instances where students had to exercise self-

regulation and engage in an undesired activity (e.g. studying) rather than doing something

exciting with their friends. Additionally, FOMO has been proposed to be driven by social media

use (e.g. Worthman, 2011), which has received some support in recent research (Alt, 2013;

Oberst et al., 2017, Przybylski et al., 2013). In our first study, we did not examine the relation of

social media use to FOMO. However, as described in the introduction, we do not believe FOMO

to be uniquely a product of social media. Another study was thus designed to tease apart these

issues and gain a better conceptual understanding of the FOMO experience.

Study 2


After finding evidence that FOMO was a common phenomenon amongst our student

sample, related to contextual variables, and with robust affective consequences, we were

interested in further investigating some basic properties of the FOMO experience. First, we

wanted to know whether FOMO is simply a question of self-regulation and occurs only when a

person has to force themselves to do an unpleasant activity (e.g., homework) while his or her

peers are engaging in something more pleasant, or whether it also occurs when the current

activity is a pleasant activity of one’s own choosing. Based on popular descriptions of FOMO,

we hypothesized that people can experience FOMO even when engaged in an interesting focal

activity.

The study also aimed to examine the role that social media might play in FOMO. Recent

research highlights that FOMO is driven by social media (Alt, 2013; Beyens et al., 2016; Oberst

et al., 2017, Przybylski et al., 2013). However, while social media may help people become

aware of other opportunities on which they are missing out, people are likely to experience

FOMO independently of how these alternate opportunities are brought to their attention.

Specifically, receiving a phone call from a friend reminding you about a party would likely have

the same effect (if not stronger) as seeing a tweet from that friend about the good time he is

having at the party. We hypothesized that FOMO was associated with missed social

opportunities, but that it did not matter whether these opportunities involved or were

communicated by social media.

In addition to seeing the conditions under which FOMO is present, we were also

interested in its emotional and self-regulatory consequences. First, to replicate our Study 1

finding and based on popular culture’s discourse on the phenomena, we expected FOMO to be

related to lower positive and higher negative affect. Additionally, we expected FOMO to be


characterized by greater distraction and decreased focus on the current activity, as well as

increased regret for not engaging in the alternate activity.

In order to address these questions, we conducted an experimental study. Participants

were asked to read a vignette and imagine themselves in the situation. Each vignette described an

activity that the person had planned to do that evening (either an assignment, reading a book, or

seeing a friend), as well as an alternate activity (watching a TV show or going to a party with a

reminder from a friend or from social media). The originally planned activity was always chosen.

After reading the vignette, participants answered questions about their thoughts and feelings in

that situation. This manipulation allowed us to test the following hypotheses: (H1) FOMO would

be higher when people are missing out on a social rather that non-social alternate activity; (H2)

Social media usage would not affect FOMO; (H3) FOMO would be similarly experienced

whether the planned activity was an obligation (working on an assignment) versus something

done for pleasure (reading a book); (H4) FOMO would occur even when one is already engaged

in a social activity; (H5-6) FOMO would be related to lower positive affect and higher negative

affect; (H7-9) FOMO would be accompanied by increased distraction, decreased focus on the

current activity, and increased feelings of regret. Similarly to Study 1 that used frequency of the

feeling of missing out, here FOMO was operationalized as the strength of the feeling of missing

out.

Method

Participants were 304 American adults (39.5% female) between 18 and 72 years old (M =

30.8, SD = 11.8) recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk for a brief, 5-minute psychology

study. Most of the participants (88%) completed at least some college, and 77% used social

media at least once a week; full demographic information can be found on osf.io/8dhv6. Thirty-


six participants (11.8%) completed the study in less than 2 minutes and were removed from

analyses (final N = 268). Each participant consented to participate in the study and was

compensated $0.20 for completing the questionnaire.

Participants were presented with a prompt asking them to imagine themselves in a

scenario comprised of two parts: an activity that the person had planned to do that evening and

an alternate activity. There were three possible planned activities (completing an assignment,

reading a book, or seeing a friend), and three possible alternate activities (watching a TV show,

going to a party with a reminder from a friend, or going to a party with a reminder from social

media). In the scenario, the planned activity was always chosen. Participants were randomly

assigned to one of the combinations, resulting in a 3*3 experimental design with nine possible

scenarios (see Appendix for all scenarios).

After reading the scenario, participants were asked to report how they would have felt if

they were in that situation; all responses were rated on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1

(Not at All) to 5 (Extremely). Experience of FOMO was assessed using one item (“How strongly

would you feel that you were missing out on the second option?”). Distraction and focus on

current activity were assessed using two items each: “How much would you think about the

second option that night?” and “How distracted would you be by thoughts of the other activity?”

(distraction); “How absorbed would you be in the activity you’ve chosen, knowing that there are

other things occurring?”, and “How focused would you be in your activity?”(focus). Regret was

assessed using one item (“How much would you regret your choice the next day?”). Positive and

negative affect were assessed using the same nine items as in Study 1 (Emmons, 1992), asking

participants how much they would have felt each emotion in the imagined scenario. Finally, all

participants were asked general variables, including age and gender, and how frequently and


intensely they experience FOMO. The definition of FOMO was provided as “being concerned

that others may be having more fun and rewarding experiences than them”, and was followed by

questions on frequency (“How often do you experience FOMO?” with answer choices of Never,

less than once a month, once a month, 2-3 times a month, once a week, 2-3 times a week, daily),

and intensity ( “When you do experience FOMO, how intense is it?” answered on a seven-point

Likert scale ranging from Not at all to Extremely).

Results

Experimental results on FOMO.

Figure 2 illustrates people’s reports of FOMO for each vignette. We first examined the

effects of both the planned activity and the alternate activity by conducting a 3*3 ANOVA

(controlling for age and gender) on FOMO. Results showed that the main effects for both the

planned activity (F(2, 256) = 19.44, p < .001, η2 = .123) and alternate activity (F(2, 256) = 7.18,

p = .001, η2 = .045) but no interaction (F(4, 256) = .29, p = .89, η2 = .003). This suggests that

planned activity (assignment vs. reading vs. friend) affects FOMO to the same extent regardless

of alternate activity, and conversely that alternate activity plays the same role on FOMO across

all three planned activities. There were no significant effects of age or gender on FOMO.

Since the interaction was not significant, we tested our main hypotheses of the role of

alternate activity (hypotheses 1 and 2) and planned activity (hypotheses 3 and 4) across all levels

of the other activity. To test the first two hypotheses, we conducted a one-way ANOVA

examining the effects of alternate activity on FOMO, and included two sets of planned

comparisons. First, to test that FOMO would be stronger when one is missing out on a social

event, we compared the “TV show” condition with the two “party” conditions (contrast codes: -

1, .5, .5). Results of this first planned contrast show that FOMO was indeed significantly stronger


for the social alternate activities, t(265)= 3.14, p = .002, mean difference = .44 (on a 5-point

scale). Next, to determine whether social media played a role in FOMO experiences, we

contrasted the two “party” conditions with each other (contrast codes: 0, 1, -1). This contrast was

not significant, t(265)= 1.27, p = .20, mean difference = .21, supporting our hypothesis that

FOMO was equally likely to be experienced whether or not social media was used.

To test our third and fourth hypotheses, that FOMO would occur whether the planned

activity was an obligation or was pleasurable (H3), and social versus non-social in nature (H4),

we conducted a one-way ANOVA examining the effects of planned activity on FOMO, and

again included two sets of planned comparisons. First, to test our hypothesis that FOMO would

be similar in work and leisure, we contrasted the assignment versus book conditions (contrast

codes: -1, 1, 0). This contrast was not significant, t(265)= .62, p = .54, mean difference = .09,

showing that FOMO was felt to the same extent in an obligatory as in a choice activity. Next, we

examined whether FOMO was similarly present when the planned activity was social in nature

by contrasting the ‘friend’ condition with the other two (assignment and book; contrast

codes: .5, .5, -1). This contrast showed that this was the case, t(265) = 6.31, p < .001, mean

difference =.89, contradicting our expectation that FOMO would be experienced as strongly

when one is already engaged in a social activity. However, follow-up one-sample t-test analyses

showed that the FOMO experienced in the ‘friend’ condition (M = 2.42, SD = .93) was

significantly different from 1 (Not experiencing FOMO at all), t(87) = 14.31, p <.001,

suggesting that participants still experienced some FOMO in this scenario.

Negative correlates of FOMO.

To examine the negative correlates of FOMO, we looked at people’s feelings of missing

out and other related experiences across all conditions. We first looked at the relation between


FOMO and affect.7 Regression analyses showed that FOMO was a significant predictor of

negative affect (b = .29, 95%CI[.21;.36], β = .40, t = 7.32, p < .001; ΔR2 = .11) when controlling

for positive affect, and of positive affect (b = -32, 95%CI[-.45;-.20], β = -.30, t = -4.99, p < .001;

ΔR2 = .06) when controlling for negative affect. To test our hypotheses (H7-9) that FOMO

would be related to distraction, lower focus, and regret, we conducted a series of stepwise

regressions. In the first step, we included positive and negative affect, and FOMO was entered in

the second step. Results (presented in Table 2) showed that as people reported greater FOMO

they also reported that they would feel more distracted (β = .53, p < .001) and less focused on the

task at hand (β = -.27, p < .001). People who reported higher FOMO also reported that they

would experience more regret about their choice the following day (β = .42, p < .001). These

results all held when controlling for condition (see supplementary analyses on osf.io/8dhv6).

General FOMO.

Finally, we examined the general FOMO reported in our sample. Approximately 15% of

our sample reported experiencing FOMO once a week or more frequently, 35% experienced it

one to three times a month, 36% reported it less than once a month, and only 13% reported never

having experienced FOMO. Age was negatively correlated with frequency (r = -.23, p < .001)

and intensity (r = -.26, p < .001) of FOMO experiences. FOMO frequency and intensity were

moderately correlated (r = .58, p < .001). There were no differences in FOMO frequency (F(1,

266) = .08, p = .78) and intensity (F(1, 266) = .24, p = .63) by gender. People who reported that

they typically experienced more intense FOMO reported that they would be more likely to

experience FOMO in the scenario (r = .31, p < .01), suggesting that some people are generally

more prone to FOMO.

Brief Discussion


This study experimentally assessed responses to FOMO-inducing scenarios in a diverse

sample of 268 participants. Our findings support our hypothesis that FOMO experienced in the

context of social media was the same as FOMO experienced through direct social contact.

Although previous research has shown social media to be important, we found that people

experience FOMO no matter how they find out about the alternate activity on which they are

missing out. However, social media may still play a role in FOMO by increasing the likelihood

that one finds out about alternate activities. That is, it is possible that the manner in which one is

reminded of possible alternate activities does not matter, but that social media may make such

reminders more frequent, leading to greater FOMO.

While there was an effect of an in-progress social activity lessening one’s feelings of

FOMO we found no difference between the two solitary activities (the assignment vs. reading

conditions), demonstrating that when one is alone, there is equivalent FOMO experienced during

both required activities and volitional ones. This suggests that FOMO is not simply a matter of

exerting self-control to continue in a required activity at the expense of another more interesting

one. These results do show, however, that FOMO is an inherently social phenomena – people

experience less FOMO when they are engaging in an activity with another person (although

some FOMO is still experienced), and more FOMO when the alternate activity is social in

nature.

Finally, this study provides further evidence of the negative consequences of FOMO.

Participants who reported that they would experience FOMO in the imagined situation also

reported less positive and more negative affect. They also indicated that they would feel more

distracted, less focused on the ongoing activity, and would be more likely to regret their decision

the next day.


General Discussion

The present paper provides an empirical examination of the Fear of Missing Out

(FOMO), an important social phenomenon that may leave many young people feeling alienated

from their current experiences. In the first study, the experience sampling method was used to

assess everyday in-the-moment experiences of FOMO in college freshmen. Results showed that

students experience FOMO frequently, particularly later in the day and later in the week, and

while doing a required task like studying or working. These results suggest that FOMO is not a

trivial phenomenon. Indeed, the sheer number of FOMO experiences in our studies was striking.

In the first study, students reported experiencing FOMO on approximately 16% of all ESM

signals. Furthermore, 16% may represent an underestimate of our sample’s experience of FOMO

(see Study 1 brief discussion for more details). In our second study of a non-student sample,

approximately 50% of participants reported experiencing FOMO at least once a month, with

15% percent reporting weekly FOMO experiences. While age was significantly negatively

related with FOMO frequency in this study, the correlation was small (r = -.23), suggesting that

FOMO experiences are not restricted to a young population.

While it is possible that some characteristics of the FOMO experiences would be

particularly crucial, simply feeling like one missed out on something (whether they were

bothered by this feeling or not) was enough to have important consequences. In Study 1, FOMO

was related to a host of negative outcomes both on a daily basis and over the course of the

semester. Experiencing more FOMO on a given day (relative to other days) predicted greater

negative affect, greater feelings of fatigue, and more physical symptoms on that day. By the end

of the semester, those who experienced more frequent FOMO reported an increase in negative

affect compared to the start of the school year, as well as increased stress and decreased sleep. In


study 2, participants identified that experiencing FOMO would cause a host of negative

outcomes even in hypothetical situations. These outcomes included increased negative affect,

decreased positive affect, more distraction, less focus, and more regret the next day.

Interestingly, in the experience sampling study FOMO was only related to negative, but

not positive affect at both the nightly level and over the course of the semester. Although a great

deal of research combines positive and negative affect to obtain an overall measure of well-

being, others distinguish between them, showing differences from the norm in both positive and

negative affect to be related to depression, while only differences in negative affect relate to

anxiety (Clark & Watson, 1991). It may be particularly likely that FOMO is related to feelings of

anxiety, rather than a lack of happiness over the missed experiences. Even though the term ‘fear

of missing out’ implies an experiential component (i.e., ‘fear’), we only assessed whether

participants thought they were missing out on an activity and did not explore either the nature or

the intensity of the emotions associated with these experiences. Future research should explore in

greater detail the affective and experiential experiences related to FOMO.

As seen in Study 2, one likely downside of FOMO is that it may distract people from

their in-the-moment experiences. Indeed, it is difficult to focus on what one is doing when one is

worried about what one is missing out on. This is particularly interesting to consider in relation

with the growing literature on mindfulness (e.g. Brown & Ryan, 2003). Given that state

mindfulness has been linked to positive and negative affect as well as other well-being outcomes

(Brown & Ryan, 2003), it may be that FOMO affects these outcomes by reducing mindfulness.

Conversely, mindfulness may reduce feelings of FOMO, as a person may be less likely to think

of alternatives when he or she is deeply engaged in what they are doing in the moment.


The question of ruminating on alternatives has been the focus of a growing body of

research on counterfactual-seeking, in which one seeks to obtain information on a forgone

opportunity (Summerville, 2011). While such research has highlighted the mediating effects such

information can have on decision dissatisfaction, the subjective state prompting one to seek such

information has not yet been investigated. It may be that FOMO addresses this limitation.

Specifically, it is possible that the negative experiential qualities of FOMO form the basis from

which people begin to counterfactually seek, doing so in order to mediate their feelings of

missing out. While counterfactual-seeking research has thus far been limited to non-social

decisions, such as card games and product selection, further investigations using socially specific

decisions are needed in order to examine this relationship further.

One interesting discrepancy between the two studies was the likelihood of experiencing

FOMO while engaging in a social activity. In the second study, participants asked to imagine

that they were spending time with a friend reported that they would experience less FOMO than

those who imagined completing an assignment or reading an interesting book. Conversely, in the

first study, participants were not less likely to report FOMO when they were engaged in a social

activity. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that people do not expect to experience

FOMO in a social situation but do so anyways when they are actually in that situation. Future

research can further investigate the impact of social activity on FOMO experiences.

Although Study 2 showed that people experience FOMO no matter how they find out

about the alternate activity on which they are missing out, social media may still play an

important role in FOMO experiences. For example, social media may provide more frequent

reminders of possible alternate experiences. Alternatively, social media may influence FOMO by

reminding people of not only one but multiple alternate experiences on which they are missing


out. This may result in choice paralysis (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000), which has been found to

occur when an extensive array of choices is detrimental to a person’s ability to make a decision.

Similarly, FOMO may be accentuated when there are multiple alternate options, resulting in

increased distraction, reduced focus, and increased regret. Interestingly, it may also be that

people are using social media to counter the feeling of FOMO by engaging in social one-

upmanship (e.g. I feel left out and inadequate, and therefore will post a picture of myself doing

something fun to make myself feel better). Future research could examine the potentially cyclical

relationship between FOMO and social media to better understand both the FOMO experience

and people’s use of social media.

The current study provides only an initial exploration into FOMO and many questions

remain unanswered. Although limiting the sample in our ESM study to only freshman students

increased our chances of successfully capturing FOMO in the field, choosing to study a group so

prone to FOMO limits the application of our findings to other demographics. Thus, the next step

would be extending our sample to include a wider age range. Specifically, the popular media has

suggested that FOMO is primarily an experience of 20-somethings (Crocker, 2012). It would be

interesting to test this using an experience sampling methodology to determine how age, life

stage, and socio-economic status impact FOMO experiences.

While our results suggest that most people experience missing out on activities, it may be

that some people are more affected by these experiences than others. For example, research on

the impact of choice proliferation has found that in making choices, some people strive to choose

the best option (maximizers), while others are content to choose an option that is ‘good

enough’(satisficers; Schwartz et al., 2002). The maximizers were found to be more likely to

engage in social comparison and particularly susceptible to regret (Schwartz et al., 2002). When


it comes to FOMO, maximizers may be particularly affected by these experiences; future

research could examine the relationship between maximizing and FOMO, focusing on whether

maximizers are more susceptible to experience negative outcomes as a result of FOMO

experiences.

Limitations

Both studies suffer from some limitations, including confounds that may have affected

the results. In Study 1, we collected participants’ subjective experiences of missing out at any

given moment, but did not have an objective measure of whether they were actually missing out

on something. Given the importance of social experiences for feelings of relatedness and well-

being, it is likely that actually missing out on social experiences does negatively influence

personal well-being. Additionally, if it is the case that some participants are actually missing out

on social experiences, it would be interesting to consider why that may be the case – is it because

they are choosing to do so (in order to, for example, concentrate on their schoolwork, or to earn

money in a part-time job), or do some other factors, such as social anxiety or limited funds, play

a role? 8 Such other factors could potentially explain both feelings of FOMO and poor outcomes,

and need to be examined in future studies.

In Study 2, our manipulations of FOMO may not have been well-matched on other

factors such as desirability of each activity (e.g., it is unclear how many participants were

actually interested in spending their evening reading a book), or its uniqueness (e.g., it is possible

to finish reading the book another day, but the party is one day only). These additional factors

may have acted as confounds, influencing some of our findings. For example, the comparison of

social (going to a party) vs. non-social (watching TV) focal activity may have been affected by

how time-sensitive the activity was (since the party will be over tomorrow, but you could record


or save the TV show and watch it later), although it may be that not watching a season finale on

time could lead to subsequent FOMO from feeling ‘out of the loop’. As this was the first study

(to our knowledge) to experimentally examine FOMO, future research is needed to further

isolate the qualities of experiences that give rise to FOMO and design better manipulations of

such experiences.

Perhaps most critically, our measures of FOMO in both studies departed somewhat from

other operationalizations of FOMO in the literature. Previous studies have examined FOMO as

an individual difference and focused on the affective quality of the experience (i.e., fear, worry).

As we were predominantly interested in momentary (rather than general) experiences, we

operationalized FOMO as the perceived frequency or intensity of missing out. In both studies,

we used one face-valid item assessing whether participants felt that they were missing out on

something in that moment (Study1), and how strong that feeling of missing out was (Study 2).

Our aim was to obtain participants’ subjective experiences of missing out, rather than the

emotions they felt about these experiences. We expected that someone who does not generally

experience FOMO would not frequently (or strongly) endorse that they are missing out on an

experience that others are having – to them, it would not be as salient. In both studies,

participants who more frequently or more strongly felt like they missed out had more negative

consequences, whether they were bothered by this feeling or not, further reinforcing the validity

of our measures. Future studies could supplement our measure of FOMO with other measures,

or examine in-the-moment FOMO along with trait FOMO to ascertain these parallels.

Conclusion

The present paper provides an initial glimpse into a ubiquitous social phenomenon

largely neglected by psychology researchers. Given the negative consequences of FOMO


experiences, social psychologists need to be at the forefront of understanding FOMO, conducting

research and generating hypotheses that could eventually help people deal with such experiences,

perhaps by altering their cognitions or behaviours in response to feelings of FOMO. This paper’s

discussion offers some ideas for future research directions, but many other research questions

and hypotheses could be generated. Overall, we believe that social psychology has been missing

out on FOMO, and call for more research into this phenomenon.


Footnotes

1 Other research with this sample has examined the effects of momentary temptation,

self-control, and ego-depletion on goal progress (Milyavskaya & Inzlicht, 2017), goal

motivation, desire and self-control (Milyavskaya, Inzlicht, Hope & Koestner, 2015), goal

aspirational content, goal progress, and vitality (Hope et al., 2016), trait self-compassion (Hope,

Koestner & Milyavskaya, 2014), and perfectionism (Harvey et al., 2015). None of the other

studies have examined Fear of Missing Out, and there is no overlap between the content and the

hypotheses of the present study and the other studies that have used this sample.

2 Participants also completed a mid-semester online questionnaire and a second round of

experience sampling data collection in the second half of the semester; however, because of

technical difficulties with the signal distribution platform, many of the signals did not go out at

the correct time, resulting in completion of less than 50% of the intended signals; this data was

thus not used.

3 Additional data was collected at each signal (including desires, goal conflict, and

psychological need satisfaction) but is not relevant to the current paper. A list of all collected

measures in this study can be found at https://

osf.io/gyn54/

4There were no difference by gender in the experiencing of FOMO, and gender did not

influence any of the other analyses so will not be discussed further.

5 Activities were coded into categories by six independent raters. In order to assess inter-

rater reliability, each of the raters coded the same 200 activities as two other raters. The Kappa

values for inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.83 to 0.91. The remaining 3,097 activities were

distributed equally amongst the six raters and coded independently.


6 As part of the larger data collection, participants completed other personality measures,

including behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation (BIS/BAS; Carver & White, 1994),

self-control (Tangney, et al., 2004), and self-criticism and perfectionism (Powers, Milyavskaya

& Koestner, 2012). Supplementary analyses showed that these were all unrelated to FOMO,

except for the BIS, which had a small positive correlation (r = .17, p = .05).

7 Effects of condition on affect, distraction, focus, and regret were similar to the effects

on FOMO so we do not report them here.

8 We thank an anonymous reviewer for raising this possibility.


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Table 1. Proportion of FOMO experienced by activity.

Mean SE OR (95%CI)

Studying (n=813) .222 .018 1.40 [1.13;1.73]

In class (n=396) .148 .022 0.84 [0.63;1.14]

Eating (n=311) .113 .023 0.61 [0.43;0.86]

Sleeping/resting (n=269) .179 .025 1.06 [0.76;1.49]

In transit (n=348) .158 .023 0.91 [0.71;1.18]

Socializing (n=235) .157 .026 0.91 [0.68;1.22]

Working (n=44) .306 .054 2.18 [1.00;4.75]

Media (n=364) .134 .022 0.75 [0.55;1.03]

Exercising (n=49) .201 .050 1.25 [0.69;2.26]

Other (n=786) .140 .019

Total .160

Note: Odds Ratios (ORs) are reported for the odds of experiencing FOMO in this activity

compared to the overall proportion.


Table 2. Relation of FOMO to distraction, focus, and regret.

Distraction Focus Regret

b 95%CI β t p b 95%CI β t p b 95%CI β t p

Step 1

Positive affect -.26 [-.35; -.17] -.29 -5.62 <.001 .33 [.24; .42] .43 7.38 <.001 -.20 [-.32; .08] -.21 -3.35 .001

Negative affect .72 [.59; .86] .53 10.37 <.001 -.35 [-.48; -.22] -.30 -5.16 <.001 .64 [.46; .82] .43 7.00 <.001

Step 2

Positive affect -.12 [-.20; -.05] -.14 -3.19 .002 .27 [.18; .36] .35 6.00 <.001 -.08 [-.20; .03] -.09 -1.44 .150

Negative affect .42 [.30; .54] .31 6.809 <.001 -.22 [-.36; -.08] -.18 -3.01 .003 .38 [.20; .56] .26 4.09 <.001

Missing out .52 [.44; .60] .53 12.18 <.001 -.23 [-.32; -.13] -.27 -4.52 <.001 .45 [.32; .57] .42 6.93 <.001

Change R2 .16 .04 .10

Note: *p < .05, **p < .001


Figure 1. Proportion of time FOMO is experienced over the course of the week.

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Figure 2. Participant’s reports of missing out for each scenario.

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Assignment Reading Friend

FOMO

PlannedActivity

TVshow

Party

Partywithsocialmedia

Alternate Activity


Appendix: Scenarios used in Study 2

Alternate Activity Assignment

Planned Activity

Reading Seeing a Friend Watching TV You have an assignment due

tomorrow and have committed yourself to finishing it tonight; however, the season finale of your favorite TV show is on as well. You decide to keep the TV off and finish the assignment.

You’re halfway through the latest book in your favorite series and have committed yourself to finishing it tonight; however, the season finale of your favorite TV show is on as well. You decide to keep the TV off and finish the book.

Your friend is going out of town for a few months and have committed yourself to seeing them before they go; however, the season finale of your favorite TV show is on as well. You decide to go see your friend.

Party

You have an assignment due tomorrow and have committed yourself to finishing it tonight; however, there is a close friend’s birthday party in progress that your friend just called to ask if you were attending. You decide to stay in and finish the assignment.

You’re halfway through the latest book in your favorite series and have committed yourself to finishing it tonight; however, there is a close friend’s birthday party in progress that your friend just called to ask if you were attending. You decide to stay in and finish the book.

Your friend is going out of town for a few months and have committed yourself to seeing them before they go; however, there is a close friend’s birthday party in progress that your friend just called to ask if you were attending. You decide to go see your friend.

Party with social media

You have an assignment due tomorrow and have committed yourself to finishing it tonight; however there is a close friend’s birthday party in progress that you saw pictures of on Facebook and Instagram, reminding you of your invitation. You decided to stay in and finish the assignment.

You’re halfway through the latest book in your favorite series and have committed yourself to finishing it tonight; however there is a close friend’s birthday party in progress that you saw pictures of on Facebook and Instagram, reminding you of your invitation. You decide to stay in and finish the book.

Your friend is going out of town for a few months and have committed yourself to seeing them before they go; however there is a close friend’s birthday party in progress that you saw pictures of on Facebook and Instagram. You decide to go see your friend.

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